“For a songwriter, you don’t really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take them apart and see what they’re made of, and wonder if you can make one, too.”–Tom Waits
Songwriting cannot be learned. Although no one will deny, that to a musician, a poet or a painter, craft is important, they will also tell you that anyone can learn the craft of music, poetry and painting. But what separates the greats from the others is something that cannot be taught, it’s something we call ‘inspiration.’ Rob Hotchkiss is an example of an artist who, although he worked diligently at his craft – he studied classical from an early age, while at the same time teaching himself guitar riffs from the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page – it was ultimately the kind of inspiration you can’t get from books that drove him to seek out such luminaries as The Beatles, Bob Dylan, David Bowie and Neil Young; to then find a way to meld those influences into something he could truly call his own.
Receiving his first guitar at the age of eight, Hotchkiss had penned his first song before he was nine. He even remembers the name. It was called “The Long Road,” and it stole unashamedly from the Beatles, but it got him going. And if subsequent compositions echoed the styles of Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix, or Pink Floyd, before long Rob was penning songs that featured increasingly his own signature, and putting them in front of people by putting together his first band, Syanide, playing high school dances when he was living as the son of a Pan Am pilot in Berlin.
Later, Rob played his acoustic guitar, with open case, on the campus of UC Berkeley, playing for passing change, but also as a way of having his music reach people’s ears. His musical journey took him from Berkeley to the fertile musical grounds of Los Angeles where he founded the band, Apostles, where at clubs such as Club Lingerie, The Troubador, China Club, and the Roxy, crowds of fans could hear his songs backed by a band that would later, after relocating to San Francisco, form the core of the band, “Train,” for whom Rob was the founding member. Dozens, then hundreds of shows followed, the crowds got bigger, until Train got signed, first by Aware Records and then to Columbia. Before long Rob’s music could be heard on the radio, with songs such as “Free,” “Meet Virginia” and “I am.”
Following the Platinum success of the self-titled record, Train went to Southern Tracks Studio in Atlanta, with producer Brendan O’Brien – known for his work with Black Crowes, Stone Temple Pilots, and Pearl Jam – to record the album that would come to be called “Drops of Jupiter,” and which would spawn the single of the same name. Before long Rob and the band were playing on night shows, the likes of David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O’Bryan, and radio with Howard Stern. Plus numerous appearances on MTV and VH-1. Not to mention, a performance at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The “Drops of Jupiter” album sold Platinum, then double Platinum, the crowning achievement coming when the title track was nominated for five Grammy Awards, winning two of them (One to Paul Buckmaster for his string arrangement), one to the band, “Drops of Jupiter,” Best Rock Song of 2001.
Rob cites Train’s performance at the 44th Grammy Awards as the highlight of his time with the band. With his contribution to Train’s catalog, Rob’s music was reaching hundreds of millions of fans. The album that followed, “My Private Nation,” also Platinum, and Rob’s last record with the band, spawned a number of hit singles, including “Calling All Angels,” which itself was nominated for two Grammy Awards. By this time, however, Rob was ready to embark on a songwriting career of his own. After leaving the band, he recorded the highly-acclaimed album, “Midnight Ghost,” playing all of the instruments except for some of the bass, recorded by good friend and long-time musical collaborator Chris Hutchinson, and drums played by Steve Bowman of Counting Crows fame.
Rob’s musical journey shows us just how far inspiration can be taken. Subsequent records such as an EP he made with former Train member Charles Colin and singer/songwriter Tom Luce on a project called “Painbirds,” with a 6-song EP of the same name, show us that Rob’s journey is far from done. “Who’s to say there’s not a higher peak?” says Rob. “If my journey can inspire someone else, some young kid, to find a creative path for his or her life, to find an inspiration that is their own, so much the better.”